The masked framer of Shakespeare

Good news on the highway

The past two evenings, here in Shakespeare, the Ontario Ministry of Transport has been having public information sessions about the proposed highway expansion between New Hamburg and Stratford. What they want to do is widen the highway from two lanes to the standard four. Their initial “preferred” route was to go right through the middle of Shakespeare! Naturally this caused a huge outcry among those of us who live here and there has been a well organized push to get the decision reviewed, (Jonny, of Jonny’s Antiques has been leading the charge) and this presentation was for the revised route. I was a bit pleasantly shocked to see that they got it right. The new route veers off to the south, just before town, parallels the train tracks for a ways and then swings down to Pork Road to go around the bottom end of Stratford. As a resident and a business owner, I think it’s great. We’ll get to keep the charm of the hamlet as well as the residents safe. As a resident I love that it will let all the heavy truck traffic veer off and keep moving at full speed so there should be very little of it coming through the village any more. As a business owner, I think it’s great that Stratford is being bypassed as well so, if you’re going to the Festival, than the route to take is through us. No trucks, a pretty and quiet country road with some fun and interesting shopping/dining along it, why would anyone want to get there any other way? As with anything involving road development, nothing is fully set, but we are pleased that it looks like they are moving in the right direction and that so many peoples hard work paid off. We’ll just have to stay active as it moves forward.